Universities ‘need alternative funds’

IRELAND’S Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) will have to change the way they are funded if they are to sustain and increase the level of highly qualified graduates entering the economy.

A report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) in Washington reveals that Ireland is one of only two countries in the report to have experienced negative growth in private expenditure on higher education between 1995 and 2003. The other country was the Czech Republic.

The study — The Global State of Higher Education and the Rise of Private Finance — backs up claims made last week by the heads of Ireland’s seven universities that the country desperately needs alternative sources of funding, but said that reintroducing fees would probably make no difference under the present climate.